A 12th infant apparently has died of undetermined causes in military housing at Fort Bragg, N.C., and investigators are now trying to determine whether the death is linked to fumes from contaminated drywall or some other environmental problem in the home.

Last month, federal officials declared that 11 earlier infant deaths were not caused by environmental contaminants, but they did not suggest any alternative causes.

Four-and-a-half-month-old Jaxson Garza died on Feb. 24. His parents, Sgt. Armando Garza and his wife Brittany, both 26, were moved to a guest house on the base later that day. Brittany Garza later learned that her home was being tested for defective drywall and other environmental problems.

The Garzas, who have three other children, are still waiting for the final results of Jaxson’s autopsy. Brittany Garza said she recently spoke with the pathologist from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, Md., who performed the autopsy. She said he told her that, so far, he hadn’t been able to find a cause for Jaxson’s death.

“He said there is no external trauma. He [Jaxson] appeared to be a healthy baby and he didn’t expect to find any internal trauma,” Brittany Garza said.

An AFIP spokesman said the institute wouldn’t comment on a pending autopsy.

Ben Abel, a spokesman for Fort Bragg, said Jaxson’s autopsy will be factored into the military’s investigation of the infant deaths.

“As was stated all along throughout the entirety of this process … housing here is safe,” Abel said. “Our concern right now is that the Garza family is well cared for.”

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, known as CID, said that at this point Jaxson’s death is being investigated independent of the other infant death investigations at Fort Bragg.

“Of course CID is looking at this death very closely to determine if there are any similarities with the other undetermined death cases,” Grey said. “At this time we have no information or evidence to link this death to any other infant deaths, nor do we have any information or evidence that the other deaths under review are linked to any environmental cause.”

Ft. Bragg's Garrison Commander, Col. Stephen J. Sicinski, said he is confident that the homes are safe. He suggested that the deaths could have been caused by factors that neither the military, nor the CPSC can control.

“There could be many, many things that affect the lifestyle of the family and the conditions of the home that aren’t part of the structure,” Sicinski said. “If you follow what I’m saying, there are a lot of things that can go into the general welfare and the health of children in a home in a family environment that we cannot affect and we will not affect, we are not going to be the thought police. This is America--everybody has a right to privacy.”

Three Deaths in a Single House

The first unexplained infant death at Fort Bragg occurred in February 2007. Three children from three different families died in a single home.

David M. Abramson, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and director of research for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said that such a situation is extremely unusual.

“The odds of three babies dying in a short order in the same house without an underlying condition of some sort, it’s very unlikely. It’s enormously unlikely,” Abramson said. “Common sense would dictate there’s something common in the environmental exposure.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the lead agency in the federal government’s two-year investigation of tainted drywall, has examined the 11 infant deaths and last month ruled out environmental causes. But the CPSC’s investigation has been criticized by drywall experts, who say that the test the agency used –known as an elemental sulfur test—doesn’t actually measure the amount of sulfur gasses coming off the board. They said that another test, known as a chamber test, should have been used.

“The idea that they are skating around this and not doing the obvious measurement is very troubling,” Michael Shaw, vice president of Interscan Corp. and a member of a voluntary standards committee for drywall manufacturers told ProPublica and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune last month after the CPSC study was released. “If you want to see what’s wrong with the drywall, you test the drywall. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate that when you’re trying to address how much the drywall is off-gassing.”

Parents of the deceased infants don’t understand why the CPSC didn’t use the more reliable test, or why the agency tested samples from only two of the homes where the deaths occurred.

“I felt betrayed, honestly. I trusted the CPSC as an independent agency to bring the truth out and clearly that didn’t happen” said Spc. Nathanael Duke, whose son, Gabriel, died in March 2010. “Anybody with experience with Chinese or tainted American drywall knows from the way they tested the board that they are worried about something. They still refuse to do any chamber testing and as far as I know that is the only thing that could confirm or deny the presence of problem drywall.”

‘The Nightmare Just Got Worse’

The Garzas said they had problems with mold and leaks in and outside their home soon after they moved into it in February 2010. For help, they called Picerne Military Housing, the private company that builds and maintains housing at Fort Bragg.

“I complained about what turned out to be mold on the outside of the house the day we did our walk-through, and Picerne assured me that it would be cleaned up after we moved in,” Brittany Garza said. The mold was never removed, she said.

Picerne directed questions to Ft. Bragg’s public affairs office.

The Garzas didn’t notice any corrosion on the copper wiring on their house, which is the most obvious sign of defective drywall. But Brittany Garza said that while she was pregnant with Jaxson she fainted several times and often had a bloody nose, problems that have been linked to exposure to defective drywall. She said she didn’t have those problems during her earlier pregnancies.

Garza said that just before Jaxson was born in October 2010, the icemaker in their refrigerator began to leak and water poured into their living room. Picerne fixed the leak immediately and a couple of days later a contractor arrived to dry out the carpet with a fan.

In February, the water heater broke, and the maintenance crew that arrived to fix it spilled water in the hallway and on the living room floor. Some of the water seeped into the walls and into the kitchen, Garza said.

The Garzas called Picerne several times, saying they were worried about mold and the health of their children. A maintenance crew arrived a week later, and on Feb. 23 lifted the carpet and placed a fan over it to dry it out, Brittany Garza said.

The next morning, she woke up at 7 o’clock and checked on Jaxson. She said he was already awake, so she fed him and placed him in his bouncy chair. Then she went downstairs to get eight-year old Maddison ready for school.

When she went back upstairs to check on Jaxson, just before 8 a.m., she said he wasn’t moving. She called the paramedics and began giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When the paramedics arrived they began trying to revive Jaxson, while Garza called her husband.

Instead of being taken to the hospital with their son, the Garzas were interviewed at their home by CID investigators. Two hours later they were taken to the hospital where they held Jaxson one last time.

“Then the nightmare just got worse,” Garza said.

When the Garzas were taken back to their house, the CID investigators told them to gather enough of their possessions to last a few days, because they would be staying at a guesthouse that Picerne had set up for them. Before they could leave, however, an official with Cumberland County’s Child Protective Services arrived at their house.

“They told us that North Carolina law says they have to remove the children from the premises until my husband and I have been cleared for any wrongdoing because a child died in the house and we don’t know why yet,” Garza said.

The Garzas’ three remaining children stayed with family friends for four days. They’re now back with their parents at the guesthouse where the family is still staying.

Brittany Garza said she doesn’t want to live on the base any more, but she worries that moving will be too expensive.

“I don’t know what to do, because I want to keep my other kids safe,” she said.

Correction:An earlier version of this article stated that Chris Grey was a spokesman for Fort Bragg’s Criminal Investigation Command. He is actually the spokesman for the Army’s Criminal investigation Command.

122 comments

Not to take away from the possibility of a drywall problem, but I think mold is much more likely, particularly given the history of water damage. It actually doesn’t take much. Please do research on the effects of mold and how to properly remediate. And that does not mean reading only government and industry propaganda. Putting a fan on water damage is not adequate. I can assure you that you still had mold after that. And mold will cause the same symptoms listed here. It made me stop breathing in my sleep, and I have strong neural circuits in my brain that have been reinforced with 35 years of breathing (this sort of apnea is called central apnea and is due to the breathing control center in the brain malfunctioning. Mold toxins are neurotoxins, i.e. they attack nerve cells including brain cells.) Newborn brains are so susceptible to this type of damage. Please see a mold-literate doctor. These babies bodies should also be tested for mycotoxins, which is never done unless you seek out someone to do it specifically (you can test for it in the urine, for those still living). Young children who survive commonly develop autism and ADHD and all the GI and immune symptoms that go along with that. Older people will notice anxiety, depression, memory loss, and a plethora of other brain and body symptoms. It is way past time this issue came to light. All this avoidable death and disability is the price we pay so that builders and building owners can avoid liability. Please vote for lawmakers who stand up for the well-being of the people over the pocketbooks of businesses.

How many babies have to sacrifies thier innocent lives before the Government put a stop to this unnecessary tragedies? Their parents are already sacrifiecing for us by serving in the Military? What is the death count crieteria for CPSC to come forward? The mother had bleeding nose and faintings during pregnancy, what was the doctors doing after 11 infant deaths in Ft.Bragg? Couldn’t they have told the parents to move out before the baby was born like our private doctors told us to do?

Okay, mold may be responsible for one death. What about the other eleven? Three in one house? The military has a moral obligation to figure out what’s going on and to protect soldiers and their families.

If the military was not aware that there was a problem with these homes then why do they have a fully furnished guest house available to these families? What is this so called guest house doing just sitting there ready and available? It seems to me that they knew this would continue to happen and they would need a place to put the family.

Crystal,
As a family member, that is a hurtful statement. Jaxson had just been fed within the hour by his mother. Also, if you think the parents aren’t looked into after any child’s death, you obviously don’t keep up with our society. I understand that a parenting issue could cross your mind, but after the person you are referring to having just lost their child, it’s uncalled for to be so insensitive. Just think if this were your family this happened to.

SOOOOOO COMMON so irresponsible for the military - there is no doubt in my mind that this could have been avoided!!!!! POOR POOR baby and those parents who had to lose a child!!!!! The military is just a bunch of selfish people i literally lived in a military housing area that was torn down because it was below poverty standards!!!! there is no surprise in this and that is the worse part.

Crystal,
Do you yourself have any children? After the ignorant statement you made I am going to assume not. I have three children and will gladly go on record saying that all three of my children have slept in thier bouncy seats at one time or another. None of them have ever died from it. I am also going to assume that you have not read up on what is going on on Ft Bragg. I would hope that you do not live there as your ignorance would more than likely put you at risk for this happening to you. The better question here is not about the mothers parenting skills but about why a company has allowed this to happen to so many families and is still trying to cover up any wrong doings. I would hope that the more intelligent readers of this article would see what is going on at Ft Bragg and be concerned and want this to come to an end. There is no reason another family should be put thru the pain and suffering the Garza family or any other family has experienced. I hope the Garzas will help fight against the people who are allowing children to die in military housing and end these tragedies and I hope people like yourself either keep ignorant statements to themselves or research a little more on a topic before commenting on it.

This is very scary having been stationed (my husband is Army) at Ft Bragg and living in on-post housing in the Ardennes and Bougainville neighborhoods. The mold there was HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE…especially in the Bougainville neighborhood in the older townhomes.

‘Guest house’ on a military base refers to the lodging facility that military members and their families can use as they arrive or leave the area or are there temporarily for business. The rooms range from hotel rooms to small apartments, all furnished even down to dishes and utensils depending upon the type of room/ facility. It is not some special ‘house’ ready for use of the military while trying to hide something going on. All military members would recognize the use of the term ‘guest house’ and understand that it meant the local on-post ‘hotel’.

Though rereading that portion, the ‘guesthouse’ referred to was set up by the company that runs the housing on post. This company, separate from the military, may very likely have one of their units set up for use in emergency situations for those living in the post housing.

@ Jav- Yes, the house is set up & managed by Picerne. All the powers-that-be are busy saying that there’s no problem with the house they were in- yet it had the door sealed off with tape & an MP posted outside! Anyone else thinking, “Sounds like Picerne AND the military brass are in this cover-up business together”???!!!

I don’t think that jumping to conspiracy theories will solve anything.
One death has already been ruled SIDS.
I believe I read a few conflicting reports on how the 11th baby passed. One I read said the child died from co-sleeping suffocation, while, another said the child was found in the crib, unresponsive.

There is obviously an awful lot of mixed communication out there and this is obviously a very touchy subject. To just assume that this is all a conspiracy, isn’t very rational.

this is ridiculious they need to do something about these innocent babies that keep dying how many more are they going to see die before they do something about it i have been reading up on the newspapers about these articles and plus my brother was stationed there when i first heard about it i mean come on do something about this issue dont keep putting it off when you know you can do something about it

I cannot believe they are denying that these deaths are linked in some way. It is embarrasing and disrespectful to these families. It sounds like someone is just trying to cover thier butt. If you are at housing at Ft. Bragg with an infant I would send them to stay with family for awhile.

I live in Picerne Housing at Bragg…myself and my smallest child have been sick non stop since we moved here, my other school aged kids getting sick as well. But it seems my son & I who are in the house the most are definately sick worse…..we keep getting told that its allergies to the area. Sinus infections, ear infections, my son gets nose bleeds now that he didnt before…. many people have complained of similar symptons since moving into here. I believe a larger scale investigation should be done into every possible cause…drywall, carpet, air quality, etc…anything that could possibly be wrong to cause all this.

At MN Mama: Would YOU move YOUR family into any of these homes mentioned in the article??? Hmmmmm.I’d also like to throw down the gauntlet for Ft. Bragg Garrison Commander, Col. Stephen Sicinski: Move your family into one of these homes for a year since you’re so sure they are safe!!!

CC - Please contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The symptoms you describe are exactly the same as all of the symptoms experienced by the Victims of Chinese Drywall. We have been dealing with this disaster for 2 years now and would love to help the Fort Bragg families. This is horrendous that you are not getting the answers.
My daughters doctor, the second she heard we had Chinese Drywall, told us to move out of that house! She was right! My daughter slowly improved but now we wonder what residual issues we will all face.http://www.victimschinesedrywall.com

The environmental conditions in these homes need to be investigated by a Toxicologist with experience in testing and evaluating mold and other indoor contaminants. The families may want to hire their own expert. If the families are looking for proper medical care to deal with the effects of toxic exposures, you can find a list of treating physicians at truthaboutmold.info/resources.

housing on the base is horrible.. its cheaply made.. always falls apart. Hell my last house we found a cockroach. This house a mouse, our fridge has fallen apart 2 times, the curtains all all messed up, spray paint on our outside wall they never cleaned up. My daughter found a 5 inch bladed knife in our back yard when we moved it next to the house.

Its horrible. They just dont seem to care about the families.. .just about that mighty dollar.

They are covering everything up cause it would cause a massive move out if they came out and said there was something wrong and then they would lose that dollar… so yeah… they just dont freaking care.

Ryan: On every military base, there is a “guest house,” which is basically a “hotel” where visiting relatives can stay or people just coming on the base who are waiting for base housing. Please research the situation before you make inane comments. Having been in the military for 26 years, I have a knowledge of this. It’s obvious that you don’t.

This is sad. I have a 3 yr old who also slept in his bouncy chair. He also slept with me and his father. To top it off he slept on his tummy. We had also moved into a older house that had black mold in it. We tried to get the landlord to take care of it and when he didnt we moved cus of the baby. I feel really sorry for all of these families who have lost a child on that base. I think the Military needs to be responsable for this. Our Military you would think would be a safe place but this to me sound very unsafe to be. Also Im wondering if they are not testing something new out on some of these families. If I was them I wouldnt go to any of thier doctor’s much less let someone who is paid by the Military do a autopsy on my child. I have friends who are in the Military, my grandfather’s were Military men so there is some Military background with me but I wouldnt trust anyone who is being paid by the Military.

Didi I have done extensive research and they were not put into a hotel type place. They were put into a fully furnished three bedroom two bath home that is in the middle of a military neighborhood. It looks like a regular house. It is not a home that is available to anyone coming in or leaving or any visiting relatives. There is a hotel on base that families coming into base are put into until housing is available. This is not what this guest home is. While I appreciate your years of service and knowledge that I do not have about the military I do have tons of knowledge of this specific situation. I do hope you want to see this come to an end rather than argue about the type of housing they were put in. My only goal here is to help a hurting family stop this insanity and have no other family live the nightmare that is now the Garzas reality. Please help stop this.

CC: Please get out of that house that you are in now before another tragedy happens. Every symptom you described we and our neighbors experienced with Chinese Drywall. The Chinese dry wall is off gasing with the following gases such as sulphur dioxide, carnobonyl sulphide, carbonyl desulphide, formaldyhyde,and nitrous oxide.CPSC did the testing and the report told us so!! Please do not stay there anymore, and become part of the Fort Bragg statistics. In the mean time wear a gas mask with charcoal filters until you find alternative housing!! Military is covering it up, we also lived in the military bases in our days of military life, we had our share of mold and roaches as well in military housing but no Chinese drywall!!

On Feb 12, before the most recent infant’s death, Ft. Bragg’s Garrison Commander, Col Stephen Sicinski made a statement insinuating that the families involved are responsible. That is incredibly unintelligent and is obviously covering up the real issue at hand. Make sure you thoroughly read over his statement in this article. What a moron. Who talks about “the thought police.” As you can tell by reading his statement, it is made obvious that he has no intention to find justice for these families. Sicinski should not be the Garrison Commander of any base as he has shown that he is insensitive, careless, heartless, an idiot, and is only attempting to keep his name from being dragged through the mud. I’m hoping all of these families will band together and let Ft Bragg and Mr. Sicinski know that they won’t give us this easy. Justice will prevail!

I agree with Shannon. I am thankful someone is reading this article and see some of the major problems here. What kind of human would make a statement like that instead of trying to find the real cause of these tragic deaths. And the fact that he made that comment before this last death of Jaxson and yet it was put into this article and made to sound as if he was saying it about the Garza family. Any family with small children is not spotless yet those children are not dying. We are taught as mothers our time is better spent loving on our children than scrubbing the corners of our floors. I would like to see his home. Let’s deal with the real issue and not side step it. Let’s come together and save another family from this horrible tragedy.

Col. Sicinski’s comments seem to suggest that this is possibly the family’s fault. All twelve families? Col., your troops have enlisted and know that they can be put in harm’s way. Their families have not! Your comment is at best insensitive. Did you and Gen McCrystal both study public speaking at West Point?

Perhaps you could have said, “We don’t know what happened, but we will fully investigate this issue and we are fully committed to protecting our soldier’s families”

I have no more knowledge then what has been given out by the press,about these pitiful circumstances, however as a former resident of fort bragg i can tell you what happened to my family. When we moved into a house on fort bragg our daughter was 6 months old. Not long after we moved in she began suffering from reoccuring upper respiratory infections and pnuemonia. When ever we would travel away from our home for a couple of days or more she , would miraculously get better…...Fast forward to April of 2010 i decided that something was not adding up, i called picerne and requested that our home be tested for mold, they sent a maintence man out to look under my cabinets in my kitchen and bathroom, when i felt like that ws not enough it took my husbands chain of command getting involved to request an air quality test on our home, of course nothing was found….2 days after our air test results came back , i decided to look around for myself, in our main intake vent i found huuuuge amounts of mold growth. Once again i brought this to picernes attention and they reassured my husband and i that it was not mold “just mildew” and by one picerne worker i was told that it was just ” black dust from our gas appliances” after i raised all hell and told them that was not acceptable to me they reassudred us that the problem would be taken care of. Picerne’s remedy was to come in and paint over the “mildew” with kilz while they displaced us from our home for 2 weeks to do so.again after raising hell they told us that they would cutout the effected drywall and replace it . Everything seemed to be a little better but we spent majority of may june and july traveling out of town for various reasons. In august our daughter became very ill again and was diagnosed with asthma. I went as my husband says ” a little crazy” and started looking in our vents again for the mold. Surprise surprise it was back, or better yet had never truely been taken care of. The areas that they had “replaced” were only on the surface , and after i did a little more searching they had only “fixed the areas that my husband and i had pointed out to them, they did not take it upon themselves to check other surronding areas. After more phone calls to picerne , another maintence man was sent out to take care of the problem “painting over it” and another air quality test could be done on our home. After i demanded that we be removed from the home , again, we were put into a guest house. During this time, i started to contact higher picerne officials on our base and asked them why proper mold remediation had not taken place the first time. I was told that because the air test came back normal, that the mold i found in april was dormant. When the scheduled the new air quality test, i was in the home , and asked the man doing the test why they did not take surface samples of the growth, he told me that they did not order this test . When i requested that he do surface samples, he was happy to do so, and said that he would have the surface samples assesed with the air samples. A few days later my husband and i were called by the deputy community manager at fort bragg. She asked to meet with us because our test results had come in. Upon meeting with her, we were informed that the air test was “fine” but the surface samples i requested had come back as stachybotrys , toxic black mold. i was not surprised. We were then told that we would be moved out of the home ( to a new brand new new construction , beautiful house) and the home would undergo proper mold remediation, by a remediation team. We were also informed that our belongings would be professionally cleaned to avoid transfer of mold spores to the new home. Long story short it was going to take 6 weeks for our things to be moved at picernes expense, our belongings were never cleaned, and to no surprise the house has still not been remediated. To our knowledge, and and with talking to previous neighbors, there were new tenatnts in the house a few weeks after we moved our things After sharing my problems with other families living on base i was very quick to find out that my home was not the only home that has or has had mold problems. I think what has happened to these families is absolutely terrible and my heart goes out to each and everyone of them. But i beleive that it is time for someone, either Army or Picerne to own up to, and properly fix the environmental factors taking place in the homes on post.

Something sure doesn’ t sound right to me. And we know many of these military bases have had water damage/mold problems. Very sorry for all the children. It is happening to our schools and several Judges have died in court houses that had a water damage/indoor mold problem.

Thent to take the children after a trauma like this is a tradgety.

This is too many children that died. A major investigation should be done. Linda

Has anyone even considered the possibility that the drywall isn’t to blame? What about vaccinations? Or other medicines? Even vaccinations the parents may have had could be to blame because vaccinations shed. Or possibly baby formula purchased from the PX.

Such a sad story and it appears that there will be more just like this until the appropriate parties stand up and admit wrong doing.

D Smith, I believe in looking into all connections with all of the babies to find the real culprit. However, it seems highly unlikely that a medication would be the culprit or vaccinations, as the victims ages range greatly. The common denominator as of now appears to be Fort Bragg housing. If you read through the previous comments, you will see actual personal stories of other families who were lucky enough to get move out before a innocent child lost their life. This is a true story of pure negligence. So folks, let’s quit beating around the bush and attempting to blame other sources, including the parents.

Karen, Until and unless someone looks at ALL of the possibilities, what you have is an incomplete investigation. People are given vaccinations at all ages, especially in the military. And there are all kinds of medicines taken from birth to the end of life, so please do not dismiss the idea that it’s possible. I did NOT blame the parents are anyone else, I simply suggested there might be something else at fault, or maybe contributing in a small way to the larger picture. Maybe a combination of toxins (both internal and external) might be a common denominator. Look at it this way: if the Chinese drywall story hadn’t surfaced, WHAT would you be looking for? I think a coroner or three would be valuable tools in this investigation, no?

@ D. Smith: So why wouldn’t every baby getting vaccinated at Bragg die & every baby being fed formula from the Commissary or PX not die? Or why don’t we just say maybe it’s the sunshine or the wind or something else? We have to have a reason to lead us to looking at possible causation.

Do all babies die from vaccinations? No. Do some? Yes. The vaccinations come from different Lots at the production zone. Do some adults die from medication reactions? Of course.

Baby formula - geez, where should I start. There are several different brands all coming from different warehouses and factories. Not all babies are drinking the same formula. Some are probably breastfed which would eliminate them from the formula theory.

I mean, there are just two reasons for possible causation. Are you so narrow minded as to believe that only one thing might be to blame? Toxins are weird because they interact with each other and cause strange things to happen.

Do all babies die from vaccinations? No. Do some? Yes. The vaccinations come from different Lots at the production zone. Do some adults die from medication reactions? Of course.

Baby formula - geez, where should I start. There are several different brands all coming from different warehouses and factories. Not all babies are drinking the same formula. Some are probably breastfed which would eliminate them from the formula theory. They found melamine in formula last year or the year before, didn’t they? It’s not without merit to consider such a thing could happen again, is it?

I mean, there are just two reasons for possible causation. Are you so narrow minded as to believe that only one thing might be to blame? Toxins are weird because they interact with each other and cause strange things to happen.

We lived in brand new Picerne Housing back in early 2006. We were the first tenants in the house. Immediately my wife started getting respiratory problems. She felt horrible in the house, but would feel better after leaving the house. At its worst, I had to carry my wife into the emergency room on Fort Bragg when she was having significant breathing problems. This is all documented. Picerne did not really do anything. We bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner and vacuumed up buckets of white dry wall dust. The fact that the Garrison Commander would say he is “confident the homes are safe” is infuriating and demeaning to the families of the 12 infants who have died, and all others who have had significant health problems. IMCOM needs to do the right thing - take responsibility, cancel Picerne’s contract, and relieve Col. Sicinski of his command.

@ D. Smith- You appear to be rather testy & certainly on the offensive. I guess I just wonder if you’re an “insider”...Ft. Bragg Command, CID, Picerne Management..the ones most interested in having everyone think OUTSIDE the BOX- the one shipped to Picerne containing tainted Chinese or domestic drywall. Any time you consider causation, you have to consider everything, certainly, but I can’t imagine any inoculations or bad formula whose effects would be relieved by absence from one’s normal environment. All of these stories us the personal stories shared above point to environmental causation, be it tainted drywall, black mold, something else or a combination of things. The Garza home didn’t have outright copper wire causation, but the failure of various appliances in rapid succession could be caused by tainted drywall off-gassing toxic gases. The water from the malfunctioning icemaker & water heater would certainly contribute to mold, especially when left for longer than a week the last time. The water had wet the walls, wicking up the drywall- whether tainted or not, the moisture certainly may have caused mold. Whatever the case, when the big fans were brought in, the resultant dispersing of contaminants would certainly have had the ability to overwhelm the immature central respiratory center of baby Jaxson. This scenario makes a lot more sense than bad formula or problems with immunizations. Me, ignorant? I think not. You, biased & perhaps an “insider” with an agenda, a possibility. I am a former teacher, a Registered Nurse- and Jaxson’s grandmother, his Nana who wants only to see an appropriate investigation into possible causation & full disclosure…& that other families be spared the pain which my daughter, her husband & their children, as well as our entire family are experiencing now… Jaxson certainly deserves that!

Well D.Smith I think Cindi LaRee has just shown you she is not the ignorant one here. I think she brings up a very valid point that you sound like an insider. Why else would you continue to think it’s due to drywall or mold?

@Cindi LaRee I am sorry that your family is having to go thru this. I hope you are able to get answers and not lead on some wild goose chase to believe things like formula or vaccines are to blame.

J.Cogbill,Cindy, Ryan,
Thanks J.Cogbill for coming forward with the origin of CDW symptoms in the new house just like what we experienced in our new home that was built in 2006. Ryan you are correct D.Smith must be an insider or a pure moran blaming the mold! Cindy, 50 year contract is unheard of,and I am sure the commander has some connection to the contractor. Inform the Attorney General, in your state, she.he will begin an investigation and put an end to this unless she/he also is involved!!

The Victims of Chinese Drywall have been begging our government and media to cover this devastating story for the last 2 years and have not been able to get anywhere. This toxic import has been put into the homes of thousands of families in 42 states and has destroyed the health, finances and homes of all of these American families. No Attorney General or any federal representative has come out screaming about this problem and if they have they have been shut down immediately.
If you think you have CDW in your home then please contact our group at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We can try and help point you in the direction for assistance and help you to get these stories out there. They can only ignore us for so long! We are purely a group of homeowners, parents, husbands, wives and retirees who are working to right this situation.
Think about it… did you ever hear about Chinese Drywall and it’s devastating affects before these deaths at Fort Bragg? There have been numerous other deaths to residents of toxic drywall homes and not any “real” investigations into their cause! Where is the national media coverage on this devastating topic?
We would not be anywhere if it was not for ProPublica and the Herald Tribune.
The families living this disaster must all join together to expose this horrific toxic import Made in China and the lack of assistance from any government agency and our government in general!

I am going to try and make this short as this whole thing pisses me off.. People are narrow minded and DO NOT think outside the box. I am sorry for these family’s loss however there are a lot of factors in the homes of the 11 babies that the media does not post.. Such as animal poop/pee all over one of the homes or the homes not being cleaned and are filthy.. How about young parents.. Also all babies are different so if someone fed there baby and put them in a bouncy seat right after and there baby is fine that does NOT mean that everyone’s baby is going to be fine.. You really should not feed a baby and then put them into a “bouncy” seat.. @ Shannon.. You can go ahead and want to blame picerne and fort bragg but like the post commander said there are a lot of other factors that can contribute to a baby’s death.. If you would do your research Fort bragg is larger than fayetteville and is like a city all in its own.. Also in the time frame of all the baby’s deaths there has been research done to compare other citys in the area and bragg had the lowest infant deaths.. Its just like one parent may put there baby on its stomach and it be fine to where another parent does it and there baby dies of SIDS… “Think Outside the box” i fully agree with.. You people who just want to blame picerne and bragg are all crazy…
Now for those people who are TRULY affected by the chinese drywall especially those in florida my heart really goes out to all of you .. However you really should step back and stop feeding these nut jobs here around and on bragg about this issue.. I am fully confident that these houses are SAFE and FULLY stand by picerne and Fort Bragg..
Black mold I do feel is a problem I lived in a house in ky OFF POST that had an issue with it MAJOR.. Chinese drywall IS NOT in fort bragg housing!

@ER how are you so confident that there is no Chinese drywall in the homes on Ft. Bragg? Did you build these homes yourself? Were you there as the drywall was being installed? Do you have some kind of insider information that we need to be aware of? I want to know who you are thar you are able to make comments such as the ones you made. Are you a parent? Would you risk moving your family into one of these homes not certain of what is going on? Have you read the above post of families that were lucky enough to get out without losing a child to these homes? Did you read where that said their children where sick at home and would get better when they were away from home? Also I ask if you are a parent because you made the comment that you should not feed a baby and then put them in a bouncy seat. You also stated that being a young parent could affect the situation. I am a mother of three children and had my first child at 16. Being a young parent does not make you an irresponsible parent. I had children at 16, 20 and 25 and all three of them have slept in a bouncy seat. As a parent you know that you will put your child to sleep wherever they are comfortable. So to me it sounds that you aree making comments that make no sense and that you probally have no experience in. As far as nut jobs go I think you are the only nut job around here!

I am SO sick and tired of hearing about “insider” information and conspiracies concerning this story. Like the families need to hear crap like that. This crap is getting old, the conspiracies, the so-called insider information.

How about this, I would move my family into Ft. Bragg housing only AFTER I inspected the premises. As any intelligent adult with children should. If you have issues with the place, bring them up BEFORE you move in, not after. If the problem isn’t fixed, or won’t get fixed, move. I don’t want to here that there aren’t other options, because I know first-hand, that isn’t true. The military pays for it’s soldiers and their families to live off post. Another great benefit of being in the military with a family.

It is so disrespectful to throw blame around on an organization that is VOLUNTARY. This organization pays it’s soldiers on a steady basis for food (BAS), rent (BAH), clothing allowance, FREE healthcare, etc. etc. and did I mention it’s voluntary to join?

The ONLY reason Ft. Bragg is getting so much attention is because it’s a military installation. If it were any other place, unknown deaths of infants would be chalked up to SIDS.

Foul air from Chinese-made drywall has created a nightmare for thousands of homeowners.

The Story So Far

ProPublica and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune began examining in May 2010 what was—or wasn’t—being done to help people whose homes had been built with contaminated drywall. The problematic drywall, much of it imported from China, emitted foul odors and frequently caused mysterious failures of new appliances and electronics. Worse yet, some residents complained of serious respiratory problems, bloody noses, and migraines. More »

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